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The Supreme Court of India (SCI) has issued a notice to the Election Commission of India (ECI) on 5 Oct over a batch of pleas seeking suspension of Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar and challenging the manner in which the poll panel led by him took decisions, allegedly without the approval of two election commissioners—Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi. A bench of Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V Mohana said it cannot pass an order based on a newspaper report and it would need a response from the ECI before deciding if CEC Kumar can single-handedly exercise powers constitutionally designated for the multi-member panel. The bench said, 'If any decision taken by ECI is found not to be in accordance with law, then we will annul it.' On changes in Form 6 to add new voters, the SCI said, 'Any modified Form 6 has not been approved by us. When the ECI produces the records, we would like to see who has modified the Form.' Under fire over 130M deletions of names from voters’ lists in the nationwide Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise, the ECI has directed the 20 states and Union Territories where the exercise has been completed to run a special drive to enroll voters left out of the rolls. Meanwhile, India's Gen Z is leading protests in various Indian cities demanding electoral reforms and CEC Kumar's resignation. The Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) protest in Shivaji Park grounds, Mumbai on 2 Oct saw a huge turnout. In parallel, in New Delhi, since 2 Oct, protesters have been trying to reach the designated protest site Jantar Mantar, which the Delhi police have unconstitutionally barricaded. Allegations of police officials groping women journalists have emerged, which have added a new dimension to the protest. On 6 Oct, India’s entire opposition protested near the ECI building and were briefly detained, after which they staged a sit-in, and were once again detained. On 5 Oct, the new Punjab Pradesh (state) Congress Committee chief Pargat Singh demanded CEC Kumar's resignation. Additionally, the Indian Audit and Accounts Department has questioned the Chandigarh Municipal Corporation on why it took no action against nominated councilor Anil Masih in an alleged case of tampering with ballot papers during the Mayoral election held on 30 Jan 2024 (earlier coverage).
Indian Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi being stopped from reaching ECI building
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